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Some marriages are clearly made in heaven and a prime example is the production of The Wedding Singer now playing at Stage West.

Not only is it the perfect kind of show for the dinner-theatre venue, but it’s being presented in a bouncy, breezy, bright production that makes everyone connected with it look good.

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It’s based, of course, on the popular 1998 film starring Adam Sandler, about a dweeby guy named Robbie who sings at other people’s weddings while striking out constantly in his own romantic life.

The musical version sticks pretty close to the original, and although most critics scorned it when it opened on Broadway in 2006, I found it a delight. It still remains one of my favourite musical theatre guilty pleasures, with a tuneful score that frequently features laugh-out-loud lyrics.

Director/choreographer Tim French serves notice in his opening number, “It’s Your Wedding Day” that this show is going to be a lot of fun. His dancers, dressed in their 1985 best, gyrate through an aerobic series of dance moves that start the show with a bang.

Matthew Campbell, as the hapless Robbie, wisely doesn’t channel Adam Sandler, but offers us someone touching and real, with a great singing voice. Could he be a bit funnier on occasion? Maybe, but his sincerity is still a great selling point.

Likewise, Erica Peck has no intention of playing the Drew Barrymore card, but offers us her own Jersey Girl, eyes wide open, heart on sleeve, voice belting at the top of her range.

It’s actually the best performance Peck has given to date, far superior to her work in We Will Rock You and The Boys in the Photograph. It clearly marks her as a major musical theatre talent to watch.

There’s wonderfully wacky support from Kraig Waye and Andrew McGillivray as Campbell’s band members, an endearing comic turn from Karen Wood as his grandmother and a sleaze-tastic performance from Kristen Peace as his trampy ex-fiancée.

A couple of the other roles, however, aren’t played quite as well as they should be, with Rachel Fischer’s party girl, Holly, lacking a certain sparkle and Sean Andrews’s Wall Street shark, Glen, not being the superslick dude everyone keeps describing.

But praise should be given to the hard-working ensemble who keep changing in and out of Dennis Horn’s wonderfully tacky ’80s costumes with incredible speed and dancing in every excessive move of the period that French puts them through.

Musical director Anthony Bastianon leads a five-piece ensemble that gets the musical grooves down perfectly and Bryan Pasic’s sound design allows you to hear every lyric.

The Wedding Singer isn’t perfect, but then, how many marriages are? This one certainly has better odds of surviving than most and if you’ve never seen the show or been to Stage West, this is a perfect chance to remedy both those omissions in one visit.

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